Best quality export from iMovie 11

macrumors newbie

I need to export a video I made in iMovie 11 (so .mov) to play it from a memory stick on a Samsung LED TV (that I won't have access to before I show the video to people). As the TV is big I'd obviously like the best quality possible. I've done some research on the TV model and understand it runs a number of codecs but haven't found specific listed formats.

What is the best format to convert to? Should I do this in iMovie or would I get a better result from using another application (free, hopefully) and what settings should I apply?

Thanks for any help - I've done a lot of reading on the internet about this and am left unsure what the best course of action is.

Guest

What exact model is it?
You could try HandBrake to transcode the properly exported .mov (using Apple Intermediate Codec for video and Linear PCM for audio) to an .mp4 file using one of the presets, as the Samsung will most likely be able to read .mp4 files using the H.264 codec.

thread startermacrumors newbie

Thanks for the reply. The TV is Samsung UE46C7000 46" Screen Full HD 1080p LED TV. I won't have my Mac with me, so was planning to take a memory stick with a few different file types.

I exported a copy to .mp4 on iMovie and the quality is terrible - would it be better on Handbrake?

Also, when you say a properly exported .mov with those particular settings, how would I do this on iMovie? I did it using Share>iMovie>HD 1080p. I can't find a way to select those settings using any of the Share> Export fields?

macrumors member

LOL... this is apple's dirty little secret... Imovie HD never plays well on a real TV because apple refuses to support AVCHD nativelly instead using inferior codecs good luck ... Now watch the fans rave and snare about avchd is not a codec..format ..nonsense.. funny how it works well on windows PC's and can be edited and output as such..in it's full resolution.

Guest

LOL... this is apple's dirty little secret... Imovie HD never plays well on a real TV because apple refuses to support AVCHD nativelly instead using inferior codecs good luck ... Now watch the fans rave and snare about avchd is not a codec..format ..nonsense.. funny how it works well on windows PC's and can be edited and output as such..in it's full resolution.

Click to expand...

First: iMovie HD is long gone. We are talking about iMovie HD.
Second: AVCHD is a video format, using MPEG-4/H.264 as video codec.
Third: It is not natively supported in iMovie due to it being a CPU intensive format and Apple Intermediate Codec is the better choice to edit with than MPEG-4.
Fourth: The OP already has finished editing, the problems lies with finding proper export options and settings. You would have to do the same with a Windows based editing solution, that supports AVCHD natively.

While I also edited compressed footage (HD using MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 codecs), and the machines were fine with it, it was highly CPU intensive, and using a proper editing codec circumvented that problem, and Apple Intermediate Codec is such a proper editing codec, MPEG-4/H.264 is not.
MPEG-4/H.264 is a distribution codec and now has been also relegated to acquisition codec status, which is a shame, but what the hell, consumers don't care, unless they have problems.

But then again, you are on a war path concerning Mac OS X and AVCHD. Good to see, that you seem to not know much about codecs and such.

macrumors member

Lol .. told U the fans were gonna Rave.... lame excuses about codecs and other nonsense . Back in 2008 i had a Dell 2.8ghz pentium Pc 1gb of RAM and edited AVCHD all the time no problems...imovie sucks at HD. The mac fans are in a sad state of denial......

Guest

Lol .. told U the fans were gonna Rave.... lame excuses about codecs and other nonsense . Back in 2008 i had a Dell 2.8ghz pentium Pc 1gb of RAM and edited AVCHD all the time no problems...imovie sucks at HD. The mac fans are in a sad state of denial......

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It is not a denial, I agree that AVCHD support is not that widespread in Mac OS X, but that changed last year.

But then again, you were calling me a fan and that I rave, so who am I to listen to people like you, who can't spell "you"?

Piss-poor implementation of "raving fans" aside, why do you still use Macs, if you can't be bothered to even learn the simple editing truths like "editing codecs are superior to H.264/MPEG-4"?

macrumors member

I love MAC however it is frustrating and rediculous to here all the nonsense and outright denial when it comes to AVCHD and MAC . Apple simply wants to push there codec's on us and that is the only reason AVCHD is not supported... all the codec /format is crap.........as i said before i had a dell pentium4 2.8ghz/1gb ram that edited AVCHD just fine so Please stop with the lies and stories about it being not editable or processor intensive........Whats worst is apple followers refuse to address the problem and demand that it works natively... instead they bury there heads in the sand and act like zombies following blindlly or even inventing stories or repeating lies they heard or saw about the issue.............

macrumors G4

I love MAC however it is frustrating and rediculous to here all the nonsense and outright denial when it comes to AVCHD and MAC . ...

Click to expand...

First off, it is Mac. MAC is the acronym for Media Access Control and is something else entirely. The notion that Apple is foisting some proprietary codecs on us is false on its face. We have codecs precisely because Apple allows non-Apple formats on its platform. Those of us who were not born yesterday remember a time before optional codecs in QuickTime. It was .mov and that was it. If Apple wanted only Apple codecs, then there would have been no need to develop the optional codec architecture for QuickTime.

Now that we have optional codecs, the optional codecs that Apple supports are industry standards that are supported by numerous camera manufacturers. Among the many things that you don't seem to understand is that camcorder manufacturers are free to provide their own codecs if they so choose. This renders irrelevant your screed about Apple's pushing "there" codecs. That said, if you know of any equity that Apple holds in DV or DVPro, then enlighten us by all means.

Your poor facility with the language and your lack of understanding of the difference between Mac and MAC notwithstanding, the fact remains: AVCHD is not an editing codec. The format was designed and intended for consumers to record to capacity-limited media using inexpensive equipment. Consumers were expected to replay their AVCHD video directly from their camcorder to their TV sets without editing. Quite frankly, I am surprised that there are now professional camcorders that record AVCHD. Apple now explicitly supports the format. This does not change the fact that AVCHD is a poor choice compared to the formats that were designed for editing.

macrumors newbie

Lol .. told U the fans were gonna Rave.... lame excuses about codecs and other nonsense . Back in 2008 i had a Dell 2.8ghz pentium Pc 1gb of RAM and edited AVCHD all the time no problems...imovie sucks at HD. The mac fans are in a sad state of denial......

Click to expand...

lol what a loser you have a canon eos t2i **** camera... i have a 60d and a
5d Mark iii

macrumors 6502

Some good information here. Some things to consider:
-Was the source in HD? No video app can improve the resolution, so the best you can get is what you start with. When you imported the video into iMovie, it asks (somewhat confusingly imho) if you want to keep it in native or a different resolution. If you imported at lower res, not much can be done to make it look good on a big, HD screen.
- You can export into several different formats. Apple tries to make things easy with iMovie, using Share-Export Movie.
- Using Share Using Quicktime, You may have lots of optional formats, depending on what other goodies you have applied to your Quicktime environment.
- You can get a hint of what things may look like by looking in the Get Info of the output file. HD should be 8000-16000KB data rate, with either 720p or 1080p. This won't be definitive. But if your output file has a low data rate, it is somewhat likely to look bad on a big screen.
- DVD resolution (480p) can look acceptable, with a data rate 2000-5000KB.

You mentioned that your trial looked bad, and the above are very general. Without access to the Samsung, can you try on a large (24-in) monitor?

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